Click on the photo for better view
British Girls Cycling In Commercial Street – Old Postcard 1904
This is an old 1904 postcard of British girls cycling in Bangalore’s or Bengaluru’s Commercial Street. An unusual sight of three young British girls riding their bicycles in this famous street of Bangalore. See also my post- British Family In Bullock Cart – Old Postcard 1900. They named it Commercial Street which was derived from a London shopping street in the colonial era.
This is one of the earliest photo postcards of the street in Bengaluru. It looks sparsely crowded at the time, unlike today where it is jam-packed with shoppers. Read more- Commercial Street unveiled in centuries-old sepia. A similar photograph is also visible in this article. Military and civilian officers would come shopping here. One such was Winston Churchill, a soldier, and a regular visitor. Winston Churchill would go on to become the prime minister of Britain from 1940-45.
The street crisscrossed with narrow bye-lanes is quite near to M G Road and Russell Market (Shivaji Nagar).
Did you know- Americans would use the word Bangalored frequently. This refers to when a person loses his job to an outsourcing company because of cheaper labour.
From the collection- Raja Ravi Varma’s “Birth of Shakuntala” Oleograph of c1894., Bombay Municipal Building & Vintage Car – Old Photograph., George Bernard Shaw Famous Author In Mumbai – Old Photo., WWI German Cruiser Emden’s Sea Route Map 1914., Our Journey Around The World – 1894 Book